I have been thinking about how each element has its own way of expressing its thoughts, since I have noticed that their thought processes are so different. This is very much in my mind at the moment because Covid lockdowns, whilst restricting my physical movements, seem to have accentuated my mental agility. My element is Fire, the inner aspect of Fire, with the Small Intestine being what I call my guardian official. The Small Intestine does the most sorting of its ideas of all the officials, and it likes to communicate the thoughts its very active mind is working upon. I have often said that I think as I speak, sorting my thoughts out through the act of speaking. This can sometimes be confusing for the listener, for as I sift what I am thinking through, I may alter what I am saying, often in mid-speech, as my mind changes what I started to say. It needs this form of communication, for in communicating with another person it is doing what all Fire people need to do, which is to set up a relationship with whomever it is with. And what simpler relationship is there than the act of smiling at another person, one of the signature features of Fire people, and addressing words to another person. Doing both at the same time is what makes my Fire element the happiest. Smiles and words reach across the divide between one human being and another, bridging the gap in the quickest way possible, and thereby enabling a relationship to be set up between me and the other person.
It is interesting to look at how the thought processes of the other elements manifest themselves, as far as I understand them. The element I have always been most aware of, based on my close acquaintance with family members and friends, is the Metal element. I always think of it as being almost the diametric opposite of my Fire, and have often envied it the kind of detachment it demands, which I can never achieve. Its way of thinking illustrates this sense of distance between us. Its thought processes reflect this, for it can stand back, look almost dispassionately at what it is considering as though from a distance, and then draw its conclusions before expressing them succinctly in very few words. I have a Metal son who can be guaranteed to give me excellent advice about anything I ask him, and does this surprisingly quickly, as though he can think his way rapidly to the heart of the problem, see the solution and express it in the least number of words possible. I may be talking through a problem to him for some time, going through all the ins and outs as I see them, and he will interrupt me in mid-speech, saying simply, "Just do this", or "Do that", and that is for him the end of the matter. Metal's thinking is hidden, not out in the open as mine is, but this tends to make it all the more acute and to the point.
On the other hand, we can see Earth's thought processes in action quite openly, for it likes to think its thoughts through, often as part of a quite laborious process, going round and round a problem, like a cement-mixer churning things over, drawing the listener into this in its need to share its thoughts. One of the burdens of being an unbalanced Earth person is therefore their inability to move their thinking on, as though they are a record stuck in the same groove, repeating the same words over and over again. As practitioners we therefore have to learn ways of interrupting an Earth patient to prevent them from continuously working through the same thoughts in the same words time after time. Here that lovely point St 9, Head Tied, comes to a practitioner's rescue. I treasure the time when the moment I needled this point, my Earth patient, in the middle of telling me something, suddenly fell silent, as though he had literally at last been able to swallow his thoughts. In balance, on the other hand, Earth will be very good at thinking problems through very thoroughly.
Then we come to Wood, another quick-witted element, like Fire, its yang companion, but with none of the need to set up the relationships Fire looks for. Instead, its thoughts are directed more upon action, ensuring that things are done properly and constructively, that the right structures are put in place to allow things to move forward. It may send its thoughts out into the world almost in the form of orders (hence the shouting voice), dictated by its need to ensure that everything proceeds in good order. A Wood friend told me that she thinks of her way of thinking as being like sending out branches from the trunk of a tree in many directions. It does not matter to her if a branch gets broken off at some point, but each must first be firmly attached to its trunk within her.
Finally, I come to Water, and how often I realise that I delay writing about Water until the last, for I see it as the most mysterious of all elements, and even after all these many years of thinking and writing about the elements, at some level Water still remains a mystery to me. So how do I envisage its way of thinking? Perhaps its thoughts could be described as being much less clearly defined for me than those of the other elements, but nonetheless they often have the potential to surprise me. For Water is a deep-feeling element, probably the one that can feel the most, just as the waters of the oceans hide more secrets in their depths than there are on land.
Perhaps I should leave it to Water people themselves to describe their own thought processes for me, since these, much like what Water always does, puzzle me a little. I have therefore decided that I will send this blog to a young Water friend of mine in India, who always gives me interesting insights into her element. Perhaps she will be able to add something to my understanding of the way Water thinks.
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